By Mark Kleis

Thursday, Sep 23rd, 2010 @ 11:59 pm

Swedish automaker Saab has been accused of failing to reimburse a local governmental authority for the nearly $16 million that was used to pay Saab workers while the struggling brand was in the midst of being acquired by Spyker.

The claim has been made by the government in Vastra Gotaland, the region where the Swedish automaker's main production facility resides. According to the Vastra Gotaland government, Saab owes $15.9 million for wages temporarily covered by the authority during the sale process - a figure that Saab has said it disagrees with, according to Reuters.

The local authority gave Saab until September 20th to pay the debt, at which point it warned it would enlist the help of the national government to recoup the debt.

Apparently not concerned by the situation, Spyker CEO Victor Muller told Reuters, "[It's] just a legal dispute that will (be) dealt with in the appropriate way. Nothing of concern."

Saab and Spyker previously contested that the figure being presented by the local authority is inaccurate, suggesting that the automaker should only have to pay a portion of total, based on the same guidelines for other debts which were written down under a specific administrative process.